


A Last Hope

by Anaya_of_Wolves



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: An au with spirit guardians, Battle, Fighting, Friendship, Gen, Keyblade Graveyard, Light and Darkness, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Sora's true power, The Last True Fight, an assortment of drabbles in loose chronological order, an explanation on the whole story, kingdom hearts - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2019-12-25 22:24:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18270425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anaya_of_Wolves/pseuds/Anaya_of_Wolves
Summary: This is a collection of drabbles for my created AU where the final fight does not end with Sora vs Xehanort and recusing Kairi.  No, this is after that.  The True Fight.  The fight against the Master of Masters and his apprentice.  A revelation in just who that man is, where he came from, and who will come from a far distant past to stop him with the seven guardians of Light and thirteen of darkness.  All together, there is a chance to stop from fate from happening again.  Though, it maybe bedoubtfulthat can happen.





	1. 3/29 - Love is the Connection

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the flash fics that I decided to upload here because others might want to read them!
> 
> These are an assortment of drabbles that I have typed out in random order. Meaning that something may be written that happened before or after the current fic written. All of the drabbles posted here will be put in chronological order of the story as it happens, not in updated order. As such, I will post the date I upload the fics in the chapter titles, so that you can know when ones are more recent than others. I don't know how many drabbles I will write, so I may go on for a while.

He had gone forward and was ready to save her.  Sora knew he could not allow one of his best friends to be lost after managing to stop the man who had decided he needed her to be a sacrifice to the keyblade he now held in his hands.  It would guide him to her; he could feel it deep in his heart. But, there was that small sliver of worry that maybe, this time, it wouldn’t be enough. Sora knew he would be alone in doing this, stepping away from all of his friends and even hearing Riku say to have trust and faith in him to do this.

Sora wished he could say that he was completely hopeful that this would work.  But even he didn’t know if it would.

So, with the thought of Kairi in the forefront of his mind and heart, knowing that he had to bring her back so that she could get the chance of a happy life like they all deserved, he held up the  _ X _ -blade and just...let the power flow through him.

The brightness crashed into him, the power surged through all of his body and heart and pulled hard, and, before Sora could give gasp out in shock from just the sheer  _ force _ that tugged at him, he knew he was gone in a flash of bright light.

_ I will find her.  She is in my heart, connected to it and the many others that she has befriended.  They are all connected and waiting for her return. I can’t let them down. They all cared about her, as do me and Riku. _

It was those thoughts that kept him centered as he could feel truly nothing but everything in the flowing tide that pulled him along.  The dark corridors and the doors to the Realm of Darkness had a similar feel to it, but nothing this intense.

Sora could feel the pulls of Light and Darkness all around him and within him.  Riptides that aimed to pull him in one direction or another, but both were pulling him along in one certain direction as well.  He let them, still focusing on Kairi’s connection to his heart and the many others waiting for their return.

As he was pulled along, he felt it.  It was a brightness in the darkness. It was warmth, pure warmth and light that he would have known anywhere and everywhere he would have gone to save his friend.

“Kairi!”

His voice spurred the forces that pulled him along, now more helping him as he focused on her and used his own powers to find her.  He would! He had enough hope and faith to believe in himself to do that for her and everyone else. 

The brightness grew brighter in the distance.  He could see it, remembering when he had to save all of his friends.  The thought made him feel weaken, as though he was remembering that his leg had been asleep before walking around on it.  A very rude awakening. Sora could feel his own powers slipping out of his grasp, losing himself more in the tides of forces around him than on the focal point of his journey now!

No!  He couldn’t lose her now!  He was so close! He had to have hope in his heart-

Just as he felt himself starting to slip away from the bright light in the distance, pushing himself to keep going but having no power to continue, another force joined in this abyssal tidepool.  It wrapped around him, pulling him forward with a speed and power that was not hindered by the primal forces of Light and Darkness around them. Sora allowed it, since it was helping him reach Kairi’s light in the Darkness.  He could almost reach, almost feel her light to his own.

Just before he could reach her light, he heard a soft voice in the abyss that he was traversing to save his friend.  It spoke as though right behind him, not intimidating but a soft reminder.

“ _ Go, we will be coming to help save you in return.  Save her and keep them hopeful until we can return to help.  Keep love in your heart, and I will lead them all to you. _ ”

Sora wanted to question the voice, ask what it meant, but then he was crashing against the Light that shined so bright here.  He could feel Kairi’s Light meet his own, holding on it and then onto her as she formed here.

“Sora!” she cried out with happiness and glee, hugging him tight as her bright light continued to glow and expand out like a supernova.  She was the brightest single point of Light here.

So, who had been speaking to him?

Whoever it was, he could not find out.  Because once he had found her, he felt the pull of the tidal forces around them carrying them away.  Both instinctively focused on their friends, focusing on returning back to them. Their hearts could still feel the many connections that they all made, knowing that it would lead them back to them.  Following those strings set them on their way.

As those two brilliant lights managed to escape the abyss, there was one lingering force that watched and knew what it meant.  That force had been trapped here for so long, but they still remembered their promise.

“ _ He’s going to try it again.  We have to stop him before the worse comes to pass _ .”

There was a pause, where a sigh would have been, before the forces of the abyss, Light and Darkness, swirled and formed together like a giant whirlpool.  Then it rose up like a tower before parting into the stream of Time itself.

“ _ We are needed once more!  Let us go and guard the new guardians that shall inherit our powers and know what it means to be the defenders of Light and Darkness! _ ”

The portal of Time rippled before an explosion of Light and Darkness swallowed up the abyss and the figure within it as now they followed after the two hearts who left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I am completely sure, this is the beginning of these drabbles. This is where this AU would start, at the end of KH3. So, everything else will continue on after this point. I still don't know how much else I will write, but I am thinking of a few things.


	2. 4/21 - A Story for Another Time

_A Long, Long Time Ago…_

_He walked up the many marbled steps, dearly driven to somewhere._

_The world around him matched the perfection of the marble beneath his feet.  Everything was bright and perfect.  The trees among the terraces of the large stepped castle held full colored leaves, and the sky was the eternal blue as it had always been, illuminated by the illustrious sun and serene moon.  The world below was bustling with peace among them all, as they had never known anything different._

_It was as it always had been for them._

_When he reached the top step, he noticed her body underneath the shade of a tree among the bright green grass of terrace.  So still and unmoving, peaceful in a way that felt so alien to see.  The sight did not elicit any other emotions out of him besides the strangeness and apparently **wrongness** of the sight.  He simply saw something that would be and was to be, because it was **her**._

_“Hope!” he called out as he walked towards her.  His steps were long ones but not in a hurry to reach her.  But no leisure was to be experienced in getting closer._

_He stopped near her resting form, staring down as her still face.  A small smile rested on her face so delicately.  The sleep that had its vice grip on her mind and body, keeping it still and calm. She was at peace where she was, what she was doing.  The latter confused him more than he would have liked it to._

_Because he did not understand it.  What really was this new appeal in “sleep”?  As though their world, as perfectly balanced as it was needed anything else to be._

_He didn't want to understand it at all._

_“Hope,” he repeated with more exasperated tone in his voice, losing the patience to stay here more and more.  Had he not been asked to and knew where she was, then he would not be here.  It wasn’t as if another could easily find Hope among the castle.  Certainly, Love and Ambition, and especially Charity, would be able to find her too._

_But, then again, he always knew where she was.  The downside to being the balance to her hope.  A connection that marked them both alike and very different._

_The thought that he should just leave her lying here was on his mind as she continued to slumber on.  It wouldn’t be that much of a hard choice to make.  To just turn and leave her be here.  It wasn’t as though there was any danger for her to just sleep out in the open.  There was no danger here in their peaceful world.  Everything was as it would be, should be, and will always be._

_At least, that it was he had been thinking over recently, nearly as recent as Hope’s fascination with sleeping was._

_Said being soon began to stir from her spot on the grass and awakened.  First bright eyes opened up, blinking in the sunlight and moonlight in the sky.  Then there was a yawn, before those eyes moved over to see him there.  A bright grin was given unnecessarily to him._

_“Come on, Hope,” he muttered to her, before turning and walking away back where he had traveled from.  He could hear Hope quickly get up from the grass and follow after him_

_“I had another one of those…dreams!  Yes, dreams.  It was a bright and sunny world like ours, but instead of the land and castle, there was this great big body of water with islands in the middle of it…”  Hope continued saying something to him that was not really listened to.  Often her tales of stories, wonders, and thoughts made his own mind ache to just listen to.  It wasn’t as though her voice was a dull as Apathy’s or manipulative as Deception’s, but there was something about it that always made him feel as though it was unnecessary._

_But he could never tell little Hope that at all._

“Master, are you listening to me?  Master!”

He snapped out of memories and thoughts, seeing a deserted and desolate wasteland of a world instead of a home he missed greatly and knew would soon return.  He looked at his apprentice, the only promised heart in this new world that would be allowed to see what was to be and had been.  Such a bright heart, so eager to see what true perfection and balance of Light and Dark there was.  It made him glad to see that some things needed to be destroyed to be made better.  He would have thought another could have been like this student.

But Xehanort had not been worthy enough.

“Yes, Luxu?” he prompted the other to repeat himself, not bothered by the scowl that decorated the other’s face.  Emotions like that or any really did not bother him.  Never had they, or else he may have given into them too easy and felt the sickening influence of pity.  But that wasn’t to be, not now or ever.

“The Darkness had thrown them back out now, Master.  All of them are together, like you said it would happen.  The Guardians of Light won, and the Seekers of the Darkness have been reformed after their fated “battle” to know what is to really happen.”  Luxu-Xigbar spoke in some poetic tone that even his Master could appreciate, though it wasn’t something he was really overjoyed to know.  What his apprentice knew was what to have been and would be, making him the only other being to know.  It was appreciative to know that at least one of Pride’s influences would be useful now.

“Good,” the Master spoke, nodding his head once, “let us not keep them waiting much longer.  They should know their roles now.”  The hood to his dark cloak still obscured the world into seeing his face.  But that was good, since it was not needed for this world to gaze upon him. 

It would soon be gone, like the many other worlds that were just broken pieces of perfection and balance torn asunder.

It would take not much more time now to make sure everything went correctly.  This time, there would be no interference from powers that rivaled together his own.  Those were lost to Time itself, most likely.  Or had been swallowed up among the Nothingness that had spread like a disease once the balance had been distorted and corrupted.  He had not really known what happened to them once they had faded away, knowing that Light and Darkness had not made anything more for them.  Both had given more for these new "worlds," but so neglectful of their own children.  But now, it won't be that way anymore with him and what was to be made anew.

This time, there would be no hope to stop him from achieving the balance that should have always had been.  No more hope for there to be anything more than that!

The two then warped away, walking through portals of Darkness and back into the light that shined down on this wasted battlefield in front of a group who had already expended so much energy battling each other.  There shouldn’t be any more fight left in them all to face him.  It was also another reason to keep them at each other’s throats instead of his own.  It would make victory that much easier.

All squabbling and chattering stopped the moment he appeared with his faithful apprentice.  All those looks on him reminded him of a time before.  Where instead of confused looks, there had only been looks of betrayal, anger, hurt, and as well confusion.

“Who are you?!” said the brave little boy who did not know what was to come and had done all that had been required of him.  He reminded the Master of Hope, so small and yet so bright and full of luminous Light.  It was a pity that that had not be enough.

“Me?” the Master questioned, though needlessly and a bit dramatically for the audience he now had enraptured by his appearance, “I am Doubt.”


	3. 3/28 - Broken Keys

He stood before them across the field, with a winning smirk on his face, and his own apprentice at his side. Luxu, Braig, Xigbar, whatever name he wanted to go by, stood at this Master’s side. As loyal as ever, even against the Organization he helped and helped create. Against the seven Lights. All of them together staring at the two winners under the pale moonlight.

“Now this is a sight I am glad to see again. Makes me so happy that everything is going according to plan.”

At the forefront, Sora could barely keep his head up to stare at the two figures. Riku and Kairi flanked him, keeping him up and keeping him safe. The rest of the keybladers of light stood around him, while those of darkness had been dragged back to watch in wonder.

Xehanort among them, having shouted his disbelief and demands as to know what was going on. He had been so close to unleashing Kingdom Hearts and that power!

Or so he had believed.

“You think it’s that easy? Oh boy, nothing is ever that easy. That’s why it took me this long to gather up all of you back together once more. It’ll work this time.”

“What are you…talking about?” Sora managed to gasp out, feeling his strength so weakened and body heavy. A strong blow, after all the power he expended to save his friends, knocked him down. Now, he had a creeping dread that nothing he had done mattered now.

The Master’s grin widened even more at that question. A gust of wind blew by, dragging up the sands of the Keyblade Graveyard.

“This had been all planned before your little heart had believed in hope. Since I managed to convince a war to start and a shattering of a heart.”

That pointed statement made Vanitas growl, clenching his fists and taking a step closer. Ven, on the other had, frowned in confusion while shooting a look to the man he had believed caused this. The Master Xehanort he knew looked more confused now.

“You said it would be to forge the _X_ -blade.”

The Master chuckled. “I did, didn’t I? But what you lacked was the true reason, the real reason you need two to form one.”

He held out his hand to summon a keyblade unlike any before. It took the form of Gazing Eye, No Name, and the X-blade before it began morphing into something _else_. Its point was trained on them, and Sora felt the fear in his heart at the point meeting his.

“I’ve done it before, and it needed to be done again. Gotta have that _luck_ from before.”

The Master swung this blade to one side to the other. Sora, along with all there, watched with a horrible fascination. Well Sora felt that and more. A deep sense of hurt and pain from seeing that blade again.

“Now,” the Master said as he stopped swinging the blade, “let’s get this over with.” His voice took on a hard tone as he took up a fighting stance. It was a stance to rush an opponent, and Sora didn’t want to know if they could stop this man. Xigbar didn’t look like he would stop the Master either.

In a blink of a second, the dark shape of the Master of Masters was rushing forward with a speed and power that surpassed them all.

Sora thought in that second that this was over with, knowing he would be the first to die. _Again…_

In another second, the Master was halted halfway towards his intended and downed target.

The kicked up dust from the rush rose up around the shape, before slowly settling down around him. Now, he wasn’t standing there alone.

Two people stood on opposite sides of the striking blade, each holding onto it with one hand. The Master struggled to free his blade, but the grips held strong. He snarled and glared at both figures, who were actually incorporeal with the pale light shimmering against their glowing form. They looked like mirrored opposites, so similar like twins but unique to themselves. Like him and Vanitas, and Ventus and Roxas. Same sides of a coin.

“You- can’t stop me!” the Master growled, trying to pull his keyblade free. But the grips held and soon pulled in opposite directions away. All of those of Light and Darkness watched as the Master’s keyblade broke.

“The keys of Luck and Misfortune are not on your side anymore,” one or the other or both said, soon moving to stand in the way of the surprised group and bewildered Master. Their incorporeal forms shimmered before solidifying like guards for this group of Light and Dark.


	4. 6/11 - A Charitable Assist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has been a while since the last update, but only because I got caught up writing other stuff. Also, I really didn't know what part to write next. But apparently, I am finally going in some order of a story. Which is both good and bad.

The Master of Masters glared at the two guarding figures, glaring with his deeply unsettling blue aquamarine eyes that had once looked through time to keep it in check for his own purposes.  Now, those eyes glared at two figures he hadn’t seen in ages, wondering now if it was a trick of Light or Darkness from these young guardians trying to stop him. But as the two glared back, his answer was a resounding ‘No.’  This wasn’t a trick; this was actually happening now.

“Hmmp,” huffed Doubt, lowering his broken keyblade to his side and sneering now, “you think I need your powers this time?  You are mistaken, Luck and Misfortune. I can claim my victory without your help!” He took a step forward, raising his weapon up into the air, and then another as he began to rush toward the two figures who had just recently appeared.

Sora watched as neither of them moved, not a muscle.  He wanted to cry out for them to do so, to get out of the way!  There was no energy left in his body to help move his feet, to summon his  _ Kingdom Key _ to try and protect them.  They were going to get hurt again!

He couldn’t let that happen!  They hadn’t deserved it the last time, and now Luck and Misfortune were doing to die-

**_CLANG!_ **

A harsh sound echoed across the wasteland of the Keyblade Graveyard, making all who heard it wince from the auditory pain it brought.  Once the ringing in their ears stopped, all guardians and seekers saw that there was another new figure standing before the twin figures.

This one, however, wielded two blades and had stopped the Master of Master from slashing down.  Legs shook from the power that was pressing down on their blades, but the figure held their ground against Doubt.  Doubt, who now was showing more of an unbridled rage on his face now.

“Why do you-” Doubt began, immediately finding himself being cut off by the new figure speaking.

“I’m here as a  _ charitable  _ assistance, Doubt,” the figure taunted, pushing forward and soon knocking Doubt back with twin hits from her blades, “Why don’t  **_you_ ** back off from them?!  Now!” 

If Doubt had anger in his voice from seemingly being denied in carrying out his current ill deeds upon them all, Sora thought, then whoever this new figure was had a rage in her voice that sounded completely personal.  

The twin figures, complementary to each other, had also begun to back up towards the group of keybladers now, soon standing barely five feet way.  They grabbed each other’s hands, and then held out their opposing arms to their side. A barrier, made of a bright, swirling Light and piercing, strong Darkness encircled them and allowed them all to still see the fight going on just outside of the protect walls.

Sora continued to watch the figure with dual blades slash again with one blade, spinning around to slash with the other to keep knocking Doubt back further.  The Master of Master did stumble back, though looking more and more enraged as the seconds passed against this fight against this new figure. 

“Let’s try one-against-two, shall we?” Xigbar-Luxu finally spoke up as he appeared into existence next to the stranger, firing a few shots at her that were deflected just barely in time.  He was then pushed back from an attack from her, but he had more ammo ready and fired it upon her.

Sora thought that they had to help her!  She appeared to help them, and if they didn’t, then she might be-

It was then a blur of white flashed passed and hit Xigbar, gaining his attention in deflecting what had hit him.  Sora knew that flash of white, feeling the light from the keyblader reappear in Roxas’s hand, who was now standing much closer to him and the edge of the barrier.

“Let’s even the playing field then, Xigbar,” Roxas answered back instead, reading his dual keyblades for a fight he would gladly taken on outside of the protective barrier.

The stranger glanced back over her shoulder at him, giving him a small upturn of her lips, before she told him, “No need, I got- guh!”

Sora watched with wide eyes as Doubt had rushed the distracted stranger, kneeing her in the chest before swinging his broken keyblade into her side.  It sent her flying and tumbling against the ground, rolling to a stop in front of the twin guardians still holding up the barrier. 

She made a weak groan of noise, which finally got Luck and Misfortune to say together, “Charity!”

Doubt snorted, standing back to his full height and eyeing them all now with disdain, “Pathetic to have thought to take me on by herself.  Even without your powers, Luck and Misfortune, I still am more powerful now than anyone of you all combined. I have no doubts about that, and neither should you.”

“Yes, but they are not alone now!”

A bright flash of pure Light blinded them all, causing all to shield their eyes and feel their ears popped as something came into being on the wasteland.  When the dots in their visions finally went away, Sora saw that now, even more was present outside of the barrier. People, ranging in looks and sizes, all stood guard in front of them.  A quick skim over them all revealed something that made him feel relieved and unnerved at the same time.

Out all of those newly arrived, with Darkness swirling at some of their feet and a last bit of Light dancing around others, he knew in his heart there was one missing.

“Doubt, this is your last stand!” one, leading this new group, yelled out.  She held out her own keyblade of her design, pointing it at Doubt without a waver in form.  The Master of Masters glared back, before he soon raised up his free hand. A swirling mass of Darkness encircled them all, dotted with figures of Nobodies that help made it up.  Then he smirked, soon backing into the storm while his apprentice disappeared for the moment.

The lead figure still held her keyblade pointed, before soon letting it disappear and rushing over to the fallen fighter, Charity.  She began helping her up before they all were moving into the barrier that expanded to keep them all safe, now especially from the storm of dark energies around them all.

“Who are you all?” Riku demanded to know, still not one to trust these strangers when after all they had dealt with.

“We,” spoke another newcomer, looking directly at Riku with an intense look that sparked a feeling of familiarity within him, “are the reason you are going to stop Doubt from destroying the worlds.  We are here to help you do that.”

Sora stared at them and wondered.  Would they be able to do that now? Would the fighting finally stop now with their help?

He knew deep down, he knew he had to hope at least.


	5. 3/28 - A Little Lost Hope

Everyone appeared to have a match.  A pair.  Someone else from long ago that bore a special name.  A guardian.  A spirit in flesh now.  Someone to help keep them safe as Doubt’s powers and rages still consumed and prowled the lands of the Keyblade Graveyard.  Each spirit, force, each person had announced to those that were the one they had known to bequeath their powers to help them win this new battle against Doubt.  Hopefully the last one, unless the worlds would fall into a terrible state that none could imagine happening.

Everyone, from the guardians of Light and those that used the powers of Darkness with ill intent.

Everyone, but Sora.

Sora, who was still hurt from the earlier fights and abuse of the power of waking, of fighting against Master Xehanort for control and containing the powers of Kingdom Heart.  He felt weak, weaker than he had ever been, but glad that they had more help now.  All of those that needed it and were brought back for it.  But still, as he looked around to those that even had started to chat with their new “guardians,” he lacked someone.  No one had appeared in a burst of light or slunk out of the shadows.  No one.

Was he not suppose to be here?  A mistake?

A creeping dread, a sick and twisting feeling of doubt buried its way into his heart.  Was this what Doubt had meant, as though he was only a small thing compared to the scope-

“Where is Sora’s…guardian?” Riku’s voice pierced through Sora’s thoughts, gaining his attention as he looked over.  The other looked a little hardened, taking a role in protecting him and still knowing the fight wasn’t over with.  He also gave Sora a soft look that meant he hadn’t forgotten and was still concerned about keeping him safe.  It warmed Sora’s heart to see it.

These new guardians glanced among each other, each looking as they did not want to be the first to admit it.  That didn’t make Sora feel any better as the seconds rolled by.  Finally, it was Roxas’s guardian, the one named Charity, that nodded her head once and stepped over.  A few tried to stop her, the ones named of Fortitude and Deception, but the ones that stood nearest to Sora -since his own best friends were- lightly and gently shook their heads at those guardians.  The guardian named Love at Kairi’s side had a sad look that made Sora feel the first pinpricks of tears at just the sight, and near to Riku, Ambition looked ready to go back into the fight against Doubt’s forces.

Charity stopped in front of Sora, a couple of feet apart between them.  There was a space that even she didn’t want to cross, which made him feel worse.  She stared at him, meeting his questioning gaze with her own comforting regret-filled one.

“Doubt, did not start any of this so…”  Charity sucked in a breath, voice wavering as she did, and continued, “easily.  He took someone from us, who meant so much to us, in order to drive us apart to win his so-called “war.”  Luck and Misfortune” -a nod to them both standing near to each other even though Ven and Vanitas were standing a far as they could- “were not the first causalities of his crafted plan.  Someone else came before them, someone Doubt believed he had to…kill first.”

There was a silence among them all.  No one wanted to speak after hearing that.  Not even the guardians, who must have known this and lived through that tragedy of war, spoke or helped Charity continued.  She took a few more moments to find her voice, before raising her hand up to her chest.  Her palm placed over her heart.

“You remind me of her so much, and I shouldn’t keep her from speaking to you now.”

Sora swallowed heavily, wondering who was his guardian.  These figures that seemed almost legendary, bearing names like Pride and Justice, appeared too much for him.  As though he wouldn’t be worthy.  Because what had he truly done to deserve such a guardian?

But then a bright speck of light glowed under Charity’s hand, which moved as she pulled her hand away.  The little ball of light remained in her hand as she stretched it out between them.  Then the light moved forward, off her hand, to float in front of him.  There was a second, and then another.

Sora felt trepidation, felt the curiosity, but he also felt something unique now.  It was a rising feeling, one that spoke of how they were all here and complete.  These guardians would help them.  It was a building feeling he always had relied on.

Then the ball of light shined brighter, blinding almost, before taking a shimmering form of a girl that must have been his age or younger.  Maybe his age when he first learned of the keyblade and other worlds.  Too young to fight in a war with encroaching darkness but not wanting to let others fall to it.

She had a soft and caring smile and eyes that spoke of light regret but unbelievable happiness to see him.  She stepped forward, and her hands ghosted over his own to hold that way.

“Hello Sora.  It is so nice to meet you now.  I knew that only someone like you could inspire such a power that I was gifted.  It makes me glad to know that there is one who would.”

Sora didn’t know what to say to that, still staring dumbstruck at her.  Her face broke out into a brighter smile as he continued to be lost for words.

“Oh, I have not told you my name yet.”

Her shoulders straightened up, but the ghostly hold of her hands still remained on his.  He could see now that all the other guardians behind her were staring at them.  Staring at her shimmering form.  They looked as though they were about to weep too, though hiding it among their own ways.

“My name is Hope.”


	6. 10/11 - A Prideful Telling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been a while since the last update. Been working on other things, plus the usual stuff in life. I don't know how often I will be able to update, but just keep your eyes out for another one!

Hope was still smiling at him after she granted him the gift of her name.  Sora almost couldn’t believe it.  Not that “Hope” wasn’t her name, but the fact that she was his guardian.  Hope appeared almost greater than him in her shimmering, spectral form.  Yet, there was a twinkle in her eyes that stood out to him and showed him that it wasn’t really that unbelievable that she was his guardian, the reason he was here now fighting this fight. 

The other guardians, before Hope’s “arrival,” had mentioned that everyone here was chosen by them, by their respective forces, to be **here** for this fight.  That there was a reason each and every one of them was present, even if some had chosen a darker path to be here.  

Hearing that, Sora felt that twinge of doubt in his heart, before the meeting that completely soothe out that worry.

Now with Hope standing there still, there was just so much to ask her!  Of who she was, who everyone was, and just what she was like.  It was that snap of a connection, of a new friendship budding, that Sora knew she felt the same way when her smile grew even more that her eyes nearly closed at how much she was smiling.

“Hope, how long-”

But Sora wasn’t quick enough to speak first to her.

Sora watched Hope turned her head to glance over to Ambition, looking as unsurely surprised at her appearance here as some of the other guardians did.  Sora wondered if he was wary of her or scared of losing her again.  He wondered if Riku had felt that way when he went to save Kairi.

“It’s okay, Ambition.  I’m back now,” Hope soothed, adding another of her soft smile as well, “here to help finish this now.  Charity had-”

Sora hadn’t noticed that Hope had not removed her hands from his in all the time she spoke to him, connected with them as the other guardians had their own charges.  The thought hadn’t crossed his mind while more pressing ones invaded.  His curiosity helming those.

But, when the rumbling started and the storm of Heartless began to ungulate and creep closer, Sora noticed how her hands clenched weightless harder to his and did not let go.  She whipped her head around to look at both the raging storm and those left to stand to stop it.  Now he could see worry on her face, replacing the soft happiness at meeting him previously.  

Around them now the other guardians moved, summoning weapons and standing at the edge of the barrier that protected them summoned by the twins Luck and Misfortune.  A few of the guardians of Light summoned their keyblades, but still kept a trained look of disdain and uncertainty on the seekers of Darkness till present, who looked equally unhappy to be there so near their once-foes and could still be enemies.

A heavy tension hung tight in the air, no one else moving, before one guardian glanced back at the tense situation and shook their head with contempt at the divide between those wielding Light and Darkness separately.  Their hand held tight to the tall, sharply curved glaive standing next to them.  

“Enough of this.  Summon your weapons, or your chance at saving yourself will fall from your weak grasp.”

Love glanced to the outspoken guardian with a frown on her lips, “Pride-”

But Pride shot even Love a disdainful look at the interruption.  “I was not summoned here- _We_ were not summoned her to educate them on matters of greater importance than the tricks and lies of Doubt.  We are here to take our vengeance and save what was supposed to be.  For both Light and Darkness and all that was created from them.”

Pride’s voice, to Sora, sounded more as though they were trying to convince themself of what they said than Love.  Their eyes shifted about, and a hard frown dragged the corners of their lips down and making the small wrinkles there more pronounced and made them look older.  Sora then glanced to Hope, still standing in front of him, to see her now wearing a sad frown on her face and gaze off to the side and not able to meet his.

“But why should we even trust-” The younger Xehanort’s voice held a snidely tone of voice that soon quickly earned him the full attention of Pride.  

Their body whipped around, glaring even at the younger man whose future self had seemingly help lead to this happening.  The glaive in Pride’s hand shook at how tightly they held it.  An electric glare was passed between them, unbroken and challenging, as they stood only a few long strides apart from each other.

“Enough, Pride.”  Officiousness’s voice drawled out, nearly taking a full breath to say just one word, and even daring to move closer over to Pride with his weapon of a heavy-headed specter in hand.  But Pride paid him and his interruption no mind, still glaring down at the young adult who dared to glare right back at them.

“You said so before.  Doubt lied-” again the younger Xehanort tried to argue back, though this time his reply was not verbal.

Pride moved fast, faster than Sora or any other of the keybladers standing here could see.  Those few long strides of land between them and Xehanort closed in a matter of seconds.  

Now, Pride’s glaive rested just under Xehanort’s chin, as though he was resting it there rather than not being able to lower his chin in fear of cutting it.  Slowly, they tilted his chin up, to look up at the taller and more imposing figure of a being with name of “Pride” and all their strength.  There wasn't a trace of fear on his face, but a flicker of an emotion, snuffed out before being noticeable, passed over his face as he continued to meet Pride's glaring gaze.

“I have been fooled by Doubt once.  I will not let that happen again.”

There was a venom in that voice, but also anger that meant something more.  A story that hadn’t been told, at least those that had present currently fighting in the Second Keyblade War.

But no explanation came.  Pride dropped the glaive from under Xehanort’s chin and turned away, walking back to the barrier to stand among those that they had come with now.  They kept their back to everyone, standing still like a stone statue.  All the guardians gave at least a gaze once or twice to them, before returning their focus on the encroaching swirling mass of darkness.

After a terse moment of baited breath and watching as a fight of conflicting emotions passed over Xehanort's face, Sora noticed Riku moving over to him and turned his head to face him as he spoke, “We have to help them, Sora.  I mean, at least _we_ do.  You shouldn't- after everything else, I don't know if that would be wise to drag you into more fighting.”  A frown sat heavy in Riku's face as he managed to get those words out.  There was a thickness in them, almost as though they hurt to say.  Be it for the fact that Sora was still hurting after all the fighting and strip of most of his energy or if it was worry that Riku felt having him enter another fight, Riku didn't explain himself.

What also caught Sora’s notice was how worried Hope looked, poorly masking the fright that was edging onto her face after Riku spoke.  

Concern reigned supremely on Sora’s face, making him only focus on the spectral fear he could visible see.  He never thought he would even see a specter that could look so afraid.  Then again, there was a lot he supposed he didn’t know right now.

“Riku, I-” Sora began to say, still having his gaze locked to the worried look that Hope had in hers.

“Sora, wait,” Hope quickly whispered out, between just the two of them, curling her shimmering hands move over his hands as though she was trying to squeeze them, “I need to show you something first before you do that.”

“Show me something?”

Hope nods her head quickly, at first, before slowing down to a solemn nod.  Her eyes couldn’t meet his after that.  “Something that only you would understand.”

He trusted her, trusted that he might come to understand to help her, to help them all.  But soon, as the world began to fade around him like ink dissipating in water, he felt more confused now than before.  He tried to speak, to ask her what was going on, but his voice was static among the encroaching fading of the world he had been in to the one she was slowly bringing him to.

“Because you have touched Death so closely, I will show you what once was.”

Hope’s voice echoed around him, even though she appeared motionless before him still.  Her lips hadn’t moved, not even her throat.  Sora still could not make a sound in response or protest to what she was telling him.  All that he could see was them in an endless void around him.  Like they were the only Light left in the Darkness.

But soon, that began to change with the emergence of light all around them, becoming more like shadows among a world taking form that he had never been to.  A world that slowly bloomed into an incredible landscape all around them both.  Hope’s hand still cradled his own and her eyes kept to his face, even as he began to look around and wanted to see all that there was around them both now.


	7. 3/28 - A Tale of Hope

“So, this is Kingdom Hearts?”

“Was.  It was, a long time ago.  It didn’t even bear that name then.  It simply was home.”

The illusion before them, stretching out from the cliffside, shimmered and shaped into a world that was beautiful, as it was familiar to him.  He could see parts that reminded him of Radiant Garden, Scala ad Caelum, and even towers like Master Yen Sid resided in.  It was so luminous, with a sky that had no cloud in sight.  Instead, there was a brilliant sun to the east, and an actual moon in the western sky.  Both were present.

Sora looked to her, confused, but he saw her staring out into the world that once had been.

“Home.  I miss it so much, more than…well being alive.  It is where we all lived, happy and in harmony.”

Sora, looking back, could see people in the distances.  People were playing, running, walking, enjoying themselves.  He noticed a few similar faces from the final battle with the Xigbar and Master of Masters..

Or, rather, Luxu and Doubt.

Sora could feel the faint impression of her shuddering next to him, still looking out on the world that had been the World.  The balance between Light and Dark.  A harmony that had been the first created.

The first destroyed.

“But that wasn’t to always be, sadly.  I almost wish I had known that then, so that it would not have hurt so much when Doubt…” her voice trailed off, another shudder running through her incorporeal form.  Sora finally glanced over and soon wrapped his arm around her shuddering shoulders, giving her some comfort.  She leaned against him as she continued to not-cry.

“We were all to guard each other, to guide, to balance.  Everything was new then.  Magic, knowledge, peace, balance.  Even disaster, ruin, hurt, pain, death.”

Speaking of those made him feel a shiver of ill feeling in him.  It wasn’t just what she said, the fact that she herself was dead, but the fact that they shared such a similar fate.  Though, he had known somewhat what had been in store for him.  The Young Xehanort had warned him, and so had Chiritiy.  But he had to save his friends.

Their hope had rested with him.

Now, he rested here with Hope, seeing the past as it once had been as the present was being.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. Questions can be asked here or on my tumblr, [anaya-of-wolves](anaya-of-wolves.tumblr)


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